Notes from Ravi's appearance (Part 2 of 3)

The second speaker was Stuart McAllister, who talked on the topic "Barriers and Bridges for the Gospel."

He started out with the theme "The key issue is a person, not a concept." Pointing to Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:27-29), he talked about how the purpose of the church, and witnessing, and apologetics, is to answer peoples' question "Who is Jesus?"

Like Amy, Stuart stressed that we should emulate Jesus. His point was that Jesus never tried to pressure or argue anyone into accepting him. Three memorable items:

• The call is to witness, not coercion


• We need to follow God's leadership and not pressure


• We need to let trust in God, not fear of failure, energize our efforts.

In a tie-in with what Amy said, Stuart used the first 2 items to point out that the purpose of apologetics is to answer peoples' questions, not to convert by argument.

He then briefly discussed the issue of absolute truth, mainly talking about how people bandy phrases like "absolute truth" and "objective truth" around without really knowing what they mean.

He wrapped up by referring to 1 Peter 3:15, that we should be ready to present a defense for our faith. He said something that probably stuck with me more than anything else said that day: "We should love people to prepare to answer their questions." He also gave some practical steps we can do to prepare ourselves:

1. We need to read books that deal with the questions people raise about Christianity.


2. We should practice with friends on how to answer oft repeated questions.


3. We need to get out of the churches and into the malls so that we'll know what questions people have.


4. Each of us must find a personal articulation of what is meant by the truth, that corresponds to God's Word, so that we can answer people with clarity and confidence. (And without sounding like we are giving canned responses.)